Mali soldier killed in Timbuktu suicide bomb attack

A suicide attack has killed a Malian soldier in the historic city of Timbuktu, the army says.

The attacker set off an explosive belt inside a car which had been stopped at a checkpoint near the airport, a military source said.

This is the first suicide attack in Timbuktu since French-led forces ousted Islamist militants from the city in January.

The French army says it also killed at least 10 militants in a later attack.

The French government says it is still trying to verify claims by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) that it had executed French hostage Philippe Verdon on 10 March, in retaliation for France's intervention in Mali.

France sent troops in January to regain the north from a loose coalition of militant Islamist groups, saying they threatened to turn the whole of Mali into a "terrorist state".

"A booby-trapped car exploded during the night [Wednesday] near the Timbuktu airport," a military source told the AFP news agency.

Treasures of Timbuktu

Timbuktu was a centre of Islamic learning from the 13th to the 17th Centuries

700,000 manuscripts had survived in public libraries and private collections

Books on religion, law, literature and science

Added to Unesco world heritage list in 1988 for its three mosques and 16 cemeteries and mausoleums

They played a major role in spreading Islam in West Africa; the oldest dates from 1329